Environmental Theory, Biological And Sociological Theories (Essay Sample)

THEORIES OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS
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Task 1: The biomedical approach to health is the best approach to viewing physical and mental health
The perspectives and ideas on how humans acquire sickness and why they are vulnerable to sickness are known as the theory of health and illness. The theories offer different ideas and perspectives that explain factors leading to the deterioration of human health. Such theories include biological approaches which explain why the body immune system become vulnerable to diseases and how these infections affect the body systems leading to illness. They are known as biomedical models for health and illness. Environmental approaches involve the outside environment as a factor to explain individual's health and illness. The sociological theories look at health and illness in terms of human behavior and how different conducts leads to either good or bad health. In this essay, these theories will be critically compared and analyzed to get their perspective on physical and mental health.
A biological approach to health and illness provides a status of human health using the human body systems that fight diseases and the mental status of patients by measuring these parameters using a biomedical model. Biologically, illness is defined as signs and symptoms of a body breakdown due to an infection or a condition. It also includes a breakdown on how the patient thinks due to changes in the body. While disease is the aberration in the body systems that is detectable by healthcare givers ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"jVtK8pSp","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Pool and Geissler 2005)","plainCitation":"(Pool and Geissler 2005)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1989,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/QQBXHR58"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/QQBXHR58"],"itemData":{"id":1989,"type":"book","title":"Medical anthropology","publisher":"McGraw-Hill Education (UK)","source":"Google Scholar","URL":"https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YmrmpUcO0_YC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=(Pool+and+Geissler.+2005)&ots=EWbyqR3OQG&sig=Kt4l3qNRl47t9loP5PofMwklaNc","author":[{"family":"Pool","given":"Robert"},{"family":"Geissler","given":"Wenzel"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2005"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2017",3,8]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Pool and Geissler 2005). According to this model, the body can be infected in two ways. A disease could be coming from the environment (outside the body) to the inside where it affects the body cells, organs and systems causing a disease or the disease can come from within the body involuntarily and cause body breakdown. The infections could be due to biological factors such as microorganism, chemical imbalances or genetically triggered.
The biomedical model states that treatment of these diseases should involve changes in the body cells and organs using chemo, physio or radiotherapy. In this biomedical model, Mishler (1981) states that there is no relationship between the functions of the mind and the body which is similar to the traditional mind-body split model. They operate as two distinct units in the body. The mind cannot influence the physical body, that is, the cells, organs, and systems. Its only faction is to feel and think ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"eZRoKa7K","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mishler 1981)","plainCitation":"(Mishler 1981)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1988,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/JVRBK8FX"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/JVRBK8FX"],"itemData":{"id":1988,"type":"article-journal","title":"Viewpoint: Critical perspectives on the biomedical model","container-title":"Social contexts of health, illness, and patient care","page":"1–23","source":"Google Scholar","shortTitle":"Viewpoint","author":[{"family":"Mishler","given":"Elliot G."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1981"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Mishler 1981). A study, however, criticized that the traditional biomedical model links health to environmental and social factors more than it links biological factors ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"cIPJcWxe","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Sheridan and Radmacher 1992)","plainCitation":"(Sheridan and Radmacher 1992)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1986,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/TCM9R593"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/TCM9R593"],"itemData":{"id":1986,"type":"book","title":"Health psychology: Challenging the biomedical model.","publisher":"John Wiley & Sons","source":"Google Scholar","URL":"http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1991-98819-000","shortTitle":"Health psychology","author":[{"family":"Sheridan","given":"Charles L."},{"family":"Radmacher","given":"Sally A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2017",3,8]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Sheridan and Radmacher 1992).
Sociologically, Illness is defined as a sociological phenomenon and not a bodily disorder ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"f0khYxO7","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Parsons 1951)","plainCitation":"(Parsons 1951)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1984,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/VHWB6MAI"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/VHWB6MAI"],"itemData":{"id":1984,"type":"article-journal","title":"Illness and the role of the physician: A sociological perspective","container-title":"American Journal of orthopsychiatry","page":"452–460","volume":"21","issue":"3","source":"Google Scholar","shortTitle":"Illness and the role of the physician","author":[{"family":"Parsons","given":"Talcott"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1951"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Parsons 1951). The functionalist theory states that to be ill means inability to fulfill a purpose in the society, disease and illness is considered as 'unmotivated deviance'. It is known as the ‘Sick role' theory which according to Parsons, everyone is expected to be equally productive in the society irrespective of their condition or status ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"TNN9mqgD","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Parsons 1951)","plainCitation":"(Parsons 1951)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1984,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/VHWB6MAI"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/VHWB6MAI"],"itemData":{"id":1984,"type":"article-journal","title":"Illness and the role of the physician: A sociological perspective","container-title":"American Journal of orthopsychiatry","page":"452–460","volume":"21","issue":"3","source":"Google Scholar","shortTitle":"Illness and the role of the physician","author":[{"family":"Parsons","given":"Talcott"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1951"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Parsons 1951). This theory can be deemed irrelevant due to the fact that those who were born with conditions such as visually impaired parson or those with chronic conditions such as cancer cannot perform their roles as the healthy even if they wanted to.
According to Karl Max theory of capitalism, of all activities, material production is most essential for humans. Illness and disease arise during a production process. At the production process, apart from industrial diseases, chemical effluents are released which intern affects the environment, through this, disease arise due to environmental pollution ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"DTbNqnSg","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Gabe and Monaghan 2013)","plainCitation":"(Gabe and Monaghan 2013)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1982,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/VEW3V4EU"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/VEW3V4EU"],"itemData":{"id":1982,"type":"book","title":"Key concepts in medical sociology","publisher":"Sage","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Gabe","given":"Jonathan"},{"family":"Monaghan","given":"Lee"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2013"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Gabe and Monaghan 2013). The sociological theory states that illness or disease can be caused by other factors other than medical ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"QFOdLyQh","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(McDonnell et al. 2009)","plainCitation":"(McDonnell et al. 2009)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1979,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/6X8I4KF2"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/50azr2up/items/6X8I4KF2"],"itemData":{"id":1979,"type":"book","title":"Social theory, health and healthcare","publisher":"Palgrave Macmillan","source":"Google Scholar","URL":"https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TgYdBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=karl+marx+capitalism+theory-health&ots=dyoI8Q_cEP&sig=itQd8bm2MkXoGHnxEcA3uIAnCRk","author":[{"family":"McDonnell","given":"Orla"},{"family":"Lohan","given":"Maria"},{"family":"Hyde","given":"Abbey"},{"family":"Porter","given":"Sam"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2009"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2017",3,8]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (McDonnell et al. 2009). It establishes that poverty and other factors related to poverty such as poor sanitation, poor hygiene and lack of proper healthcare play a role in the physical and mental health.
Environmental theory by Brook et al (2010) state that environmental conditions such as chemical pollution in air, food and water affect human health. Exposure to such conditions has be...